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Empires
Empires don't fall. They just move. Timeline of largest empires at the time: World Empires :Map by Thomas Talessman From Wikipedia:Neanderthal Anatomically modern humans arrived in Mediterranean Europe between 45,000-43,000 years ago. Neanderthals died out in Europe between 41,000-39,000 years ago coinciding with the start of a very cold period. From Wikipedia:Campanian Ignimbrite eruption The Campanian Ignimbrite eruption (CI, also CI Super-eruption) was a major volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean during the late Quaternary, classified at 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). The most recent dating determines the eruption event at 39,280±110 years BP. From Wikipedia:Art of the Upper Paleolithic Non-figurative cave paintings, consisting of hand stencils and simple geometric shapes, is at least 40,000 years old. Figurative art is present in Europe as well as in Sulawesi, Indonesia, beginning at least 35,000 years ago From Wikipedia:Dog: The genetic divergence between dogs and wolves occurred between 40,000–20,000 years ago, just before or during the Last Glacial Maximum. The archaeological record and genetic analysis show the remains of the Bonn–Oberkassel dog buried beside humans 14,200 years ago to be the first undisputed dog, with disputed remains occurring 36,000 years ago. From Wikipedia:Cattle: Archeozoological and genetic data indicate that cattle were first domesticated from wild aurochs approximately 10,500 years ago. From Wikipedia:Ox: Oxen are thought to have first been harnessed and put to work around 4000 BC. From Wikipedia:Wheel: True potter's wheels, which are freely-spinning and have a wheel and axle mechanism, were developed in Mesopotamia (Iraq) by 4200-4000 BCE. From Wikipedia:Ur: The city dates from the Ubaid period circa 3800 BCE. These early levels are just above a sterile deposit of soil that was interpreted by excavators of the 1920s as evidence for the Great Flood. From Wikipedia:Domestication of the horse How and when horses became domesticated is disputed. The clearest evidence of early use of the horse as a means of transport is from chariot burials dated c. 2000 BCE. From Wikipedia:Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom pharaohs from '-1549' to '-1069' established a period of unprecedented prosperity by securing their borders and strengthening diplomatic ties with their neighbours, including the Mitanni Empire, Assyria, and Canaan. Military campaigns waged under Tuthmosis I and his grandson Tuthmosis III extended the influence of the pharaohs to the largest empire Egypt had ever seen. Egypt's wealth, however, made it a tempting target for invasion. The effects of external threats were exacerbated by internal problems such as corruption, tomb robbery, and civil unrest. From Wikipedia:Carthaginian Iberia The Phoenicians founded the city of Carthage in '-814'. Carthage annexed territory in Sicily, Africa, Sardinia and in '-575 ', they created colonies on the Iberian peninsula. From Wikipedia:Persian Empire The first dynasty of the Persian Empire was created by Achaemenids, established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. From Wikipedia:Alexander the Great Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. In '-334', he invaded the Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire) and overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety. He invaded India in '-326'. From Wikipedia:Maurya Empire Chandragupta Maurya raised an army, with the assistance of Chanakya, and overthrew the Nanda Empire in c. '''-322'. Chandragupta rapidly expanded his power westwards across central and western India by conquering the satraps left by Alexander the Great, and by '-317''' the empire had fully occupied Northwestern India. The Mauryan Empire then defeated Seleucus I, founder of the Seleucid Empire, during the Seleucid–Mauryan war, thus gained additional territory west of the Indus River. From Wikipedia:Water wheel Taking indirect evidence into account from the work of the Greek technician Apollonius of Perge, the British historian of technology M.J.T. Lewis dates the appearance of the vertical-axle watermill to around '-275', and the horizontal-axle watermill to around '-240', with Byzantium and Alexandria as the assigned places of invention. From Wikipedia:Punic Wars The Punic (Phoenician) Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from '-264' to '-146'. Rome conquered Carthage's empire, completely destroyed the city, and became the most powerful state of the Western Mediterranean. From Wikipedia:Slavery in ancient Rome: Slaves were considered property under Roman law and had no legal personhood. Unlike Roman citizens, they could be subjected to corporal punishment, sexual exploitation, torture and summary execution. Over time, however, slaves gained increased legal protection, including the right to file complaints against their masters. During the Pax Romana (1st–2nd centuries AD) the lack of new territorial conquests dried up this supply line of human trafficking. To maintain an enslaved work force, increased legal restrictions on freeing slaves were put into place. By the 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire faced a labour shortage. Large Roman landowners increasingly relied on Roman freemen, acting as tenant farmers, instead of slaves to provide labour. In 332 AD Emperor Constantine issued legislation that greatly restricted the rights of these tenant farmers (known as coloni) and tied them to the land. Some see these laws as the beginning of medieval serfdom in Europe. From Wikipedia:Byzantine Empire Theodosius I (379–395) was the last Emperor to rule both the Eastern and Western halves of the Empire. He issued a series of edicts essentially banning pagan religion. To fend off the Huns, Theodosius had to pay an enormous annual tribute to Attila. From Wikipedia:Huns By 430 the Huns had established a vast, if short-lived, dominion in Europe. After Attila's death in 453, the Hunnic Empire collapsed, and many of the remaining Huns were often hired as mercenaries by Constantinople. Roman historian Procopius of Caesarea, related the Huns of Europe with the Hephthalites or "White Huns" who subjugated the Sassanids and invaded northwestern India. He contrasted the Huns with the Hephthalites, in that the Hephthalites were sedentary, white-skinned, and possessed "not ugly" features. In 476 Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer, who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome. Saxons, along with Angles, Frisians and Jutes, invaded or migrated to the island of Great Britain (Britannia) around the time of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.Wikipedia:Saxons#Saxons_in_Britain From Wikipedia:Slavs: The Slavs under name of the Antes and the Sclaveni make their first appearance in the early 500s emerging from the area of the Carpathian Mountains, the lower Danube and the Black Sea. From Wikipedia:Danes (Germanic tribe) The Danes first appear in written history in the 6th century with references in Jordanes' Getica (551 AD), by Procopius, and by Gregory of Tours. They spoke Old Norse (dǫnsk tunga), which the Danes shared with the people in Norway and Sweden and later in Iceland.1 In his description of Scandza, Jordanes says that the Dani were of the same stock as the Suetidi ("Swedes") and expelled the Heruli and took their lands. From Wikipedia:Early Muslim conquests In late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule. Muhammad died in 632. From Wikipedia:Rashidun Caliphate The Rashidun Caliphate (632–661) was the first of the four major caliphates. The Rashidun Caliphate is characterized by a twenty-five year period of rapid military expansion, followed by a five-year period of internal strife. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs. Shia Muslims do not consider the rule of the first three caliphs as legitimate. The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, led to the end of the Sasanian Empire in 651 and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Iran (Persia).Wikipedia:Muslim conquest of Persia From Wikipedia:Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661) was the second of the four major caliphates. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests incorporating the Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) into the Muslim world. Christian and Jewish population still had autonomy. From Wikipedia:Khazars The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people. Khazaria long served as a buffer state between the Byzantine Empire and both the nomads of the northern steppes and the Umayyad Caliphate. :The original Bulgars were Turkic steppe nomads who lived north of the Black Sea. Old Great Bulgaria was absorbed by the Khazar Empire in 668 AD. Bulgar tribes led by Asparukh moved to the north-eastern Balkans founded the First Bulgarian Empire circa 681.Wikipedia:First Bulgarian Empire and Wikipedia:Bulgars The ruling elite of the Khazars were said by Judah Halevi and Abraham ibn Daud to have converted to Rabbinic Judaism in the 700s. :From Wikipedia:Kievan Rus' and Wikipedia:Rus' people :The Rus' were Norsemen who had relocated "from over sea". The modern peoples of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestors. Controversy persists over whether the Rus' were Varangians (Vikings) or Slavs. Leo the Deacon, a Byzantine historian and chronicler, refers to the Rus' as "Scythians" and notes that they tended to adopt Greek rituals and customs. From Wikipedia:Battle of Tours In October 732, the army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by Al Ghafiqi met Frankish and Burgundian forces under Charles Martel in an area between the cities of Tours and Poitiers (modern north-central France), leading to a decisive, historically important Frankish victory known as the Battle of Tours. From Wikipedia:Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate (750) was the third of the Islamic caliphates. Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah defeated the Umayyads in 750. Immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang dynasty expansion during the Battle of Talas. Under Al-Mansur the empire's capital was moved from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad. Eventually they were forced to cede authority over Al-Andalus (Spain) and the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) to the Umayyads. Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was gradually reduced to a ceremonial religious function. From Wikipedia:Charlemagne Emperor Charlemagne (800-814) united much of western and central Europe during the early Middle Ages. He was the first recognized emperor to rule from western Europe since the fall of Rome. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation began with Otto I in 962. From Wikipedia:Crusades In 1095, Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade in a sermon at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, who needed reinforcements for his conflict with westward migrating Turks colonizing Anatolia. The two-century attempt to recover the Holy Land ended in failure. Following the First Crusade there were six major Crusades and numerous less significant ones. After the last Catholic outposts fell in 1291, there were no more Crusades; but the gains were longer lasting in Northern and Western Europe. *The Wendish Crusade (1147) and those of the Archbishop of Bremen brought all the North-East Baltic and the tribes of Mecklenburg and Lusatia under Catholic control in the late 12th century. *In the early 13th century the Teutonic Order created a Crusader state in Prussia and the French monarchy used the Albigensian Crusade (1209) to extend the kingdom to the Mediterranean Sea. *The rise of the Ottoman Empire in the late 14th century prompted a Catholic response which led to further defeats at Nicopolis in 1396 and Varna in 1444. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, and their leaders generally retained control of captured territory instead of returning it to the Byzantines. During the People's Crusade (1096), thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres. Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade. However, the Crusades had a profound impact on Western civilisation: Italian city-states gained considerable concessions in return for assisting the Crusaders and established colonies which allowed trade with the eastern markets even in the Ottoman period, allowing Genoa and Venice to flourish. Pope Innocent III began preaching what became the Fourth Crusade in 1200, primarily in France but also in England and Germany. The Crusaders were unable to pay the Venetians for a fleet due to insufficiency of numbers, so they agreed to divert the Crusade to attack Constantinople and share what could be looted as payment. Innocent was appalled, and promptly excommunicated them. The Crusaders attacked the city for a second time and this time sacked it which involved the pillaging of churches and the killing many of the citizens. Back to top Imperialism From Wikipedia:Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire (1206–1368) emerged from the unification of several nomadic tribes in the Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan. Gunpowder spread rapidly throughout the Old World as a result of the Mongol conquests during the 1200s, with written formula for it appearing in the 1267 Opus Majus treatise by Roger Bacon. From Wikipedia:Serfdom: The decline of serfdom in Western Europe has sometimes been attributed to the widespread plague epidemic of the Black Death, which reached Europe in 1347 and caused massive fatalities, disrupting society. The decline had begun before that date. Serfdom became increasingly rare in most of Western Europe after the medieval renaissance at the outset of the high Middle. From Wikipedia:Turkic peoples Turkic peoples migrated west from Turkestan and Mongolia towards Eastern Europe, the Iranian plateau and Anatolia (modern Turkey) in many waves. The date of the initial expansion remains unknown. After many battles, they established their own state and later constructed the Ottoman Empire. From Wikipedia:Printing press: Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed, circa 1439, a printing system by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes. Gutenberg's most important innovation was the development of hand-molded metal printing matrices, thus producing a movable type–based printing press system. His newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities From Wikipedia:Matchlock The matchlock was the first firearm with a trigger. The matchlock arquebus was used by the Janissary corps of the Ottoman army in the first half of the 15th century, by the 1440s. The first dated illustration of a matchlock mechanism dates to 1475, and by the 16th century they were universally used. During this time the tactic was to line up and send off a volley of musket balls at the enemy. This volley would be much more effective than single soldiers trying to hit individual targets From Wikipedia:Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire controlled much of southeastern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa between the 1300s and early 1900s. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople. From Wikipedia:Dum Diversas Dum Diversas (English: Until different) is a papal bull issued on 18 June 1452 by Pope Nicholas V. It authorized Afonso V of Portugal to conquer Saracens and pagans and consign them to "perpetual servitude". From Wikipedia:First wave of European colonization The first European colonization wave took place from the early 1400s until the early 1800s, and primarily involved the European colonization of the Americas, though it also included the establishment of European colonies in India and in Maritime Southeast Asia. During this period, European interests in Africa primarily focused on the establishment of trading posts there, particularly for the African slave trade. From Wikipedia:Granada War The Granada War was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1491, during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It ended with the defeat of Granada and its annexation by Castile, ending all Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula. The Protestant Reformation is usually considered to have started with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Martin Luther in 1517. From Wikipedia:Atlantic slave trade The Portuguese, in the 16th century, were the first to engage in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1526, they completed the first transatlantic slave voyage to Brazil, and other Europeans soon followed The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from Central and West Africa, who had been sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders From Wikipedia:Ivan the Terrible On 16 January 1547, at age sixteen, Ivan the terrible was crowned as "Tsar of All the Russias". The British East India Company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. The Dutch East India Company, was a publicly tradable corporation that was founded in 1602. The French East India Company was founded in 1664. From Wikipedia:Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England. James's overthrow began modern English parliamentary democracy: the Bill of Rights 1689 has become one of the most important documents in the political history of Britain and never since has the monarch held absolute power. From Wikipedia:Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that existed across Eurasia and North America following the end of the Great Northern War (1700–1721) against the Swedish Empire. Back to top Industrial revolution From Wikipedia:Industrial Revolution and Wikipedia:Watt steam engine The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and many of the technological innovations were of British origin. The Watt steam engine, developed sporadically from 1763 to 1775, was a key point in the Industrial Revolution. Watt's two most important improvements were the separate condenser and rotary motion. Wealth was no longer a matter of owning land or subjugating vassals. Now, the best way to create wealth was to create a thriving economy. This is I believe the real reason monarchies were replaced with democracies. From Wikipedia:American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a global war that began as a conflict between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence as the United States of America. France formally allied with the Americans and entered the war in 1778, and Spain joined the war the following year as an ally of France. From Wikipedia:French Revolution The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France and its colonies. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, catalyzed violent periods of political turmoil, and finally culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon who brought many of its principles to areas he conquered in Western Europe and beyond. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics and liberal democracies. Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history. The term Bohemianism emerged in France in the early 1800s when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower-rent, lower class, Romani neighborhoods. Bohémien was a common term for the Romani people of France (widely known by the exonym Gypsies because they were originally thought to have come from Egypt), who were mistakenly thought to have reached France in the 1400s via Bohemia (the western part of modern Czech Republic). Literary "Bohemians" were associated in the French imagination with roving Romani people, outsiders apart from conventional society and untroubled by its disapproval. The term carries a connotation of arcane enlightenment, and carries a less frequently intended, pejorative connotation of carelessness about personal hygiene and marital fidelity. From Wikipedia:Confederation of the Rhine The Confederation of the Rhine was a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. It was formed initially from 16 German states by Napoleon after he defeated Austria and Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz. On 12 July 1806, on signing the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine in Paris, 16 German states joined together in a confederation (with a precursor in the ). Napoleon was its " ". On 1 August, the members of the confederation formally seceded from the Holy Roman Empire, and on 6 August declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved. Francis and his dynasty continued as emperors of Austria. The allies opposing Napoleon dissolved the Confederation of the Rhine on 4 November 1813. Most members of the Confederation of the Rhine along with Prussia and Austria formed the German Confederation. From Wikipedia:German Confederation The German Confederation was an association of 39 German states in Central Europe, created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. From Wikipedia:Interchangeable parts: The crucial step toward interchangeability in metal parts was taken by Simeon North. North created one of the world's first true milling machines to do metal shaping that had been done by hand with a file. North's milling machine was online around 1816. 1830s–1860s: Enormous railway building booms in the United States. The Communist Manifesto by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is published in London just as the revolutions of 1848 begin to erupt. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin was published on 24 November 1859. 1859 ''': The first proper traction engine, in the form recognisable today, was developed. The first half of the 1860s was a period of great experimentation but by the end of the decade the standard form of the traction engine had evolved and would change little over the next sixty years. It was widely adopted for agricultural use. '''1861: The southern states secede. The next year the Pacific Railroad Act is passed "to aid in the construction of a transcontinental railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes". Lebensreform ("life reform") was a social movement in late 1800s and early 1900s Germany and Switzerland that propagated a back-to-nature lifestyle, emphasizing among others health food/raw food/organic food, nudism, sexual liberation, alternative medicine, and religious reform and at the same time abstention from alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and vaccines. Some practitioners emigrated to California and directly influenced the hippie movement. The German Confederation ended as a result of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 between Austrian Empire and its allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia and its allies on the other. Prussia and its allies created the North German Confederation in 1867. The North German Confederation Reichstag and Bundesrat accepted to rename the North German Confederation as the German Empire and give the title of German Emperor (Kaiser) to the King of Prussia on 1 January 1871. In 1881 Nietzsche begins publishing his most well known books. :What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. :What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness. :What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome. :Not contentedness but more power; not peace but war; not virtue but fitness (Renaissance virtue, virtù, virtue that is moraline-free). Sigmund Freud qualified as a doctor of medicine at the University of Vienna. From Wikipedia:Unification of Germany The unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871. From Wikipedia:German colonial empire German Colonial efforts only began in 1884 with the Scramble for Africa. Claiming much of the left-over colonies that were yet unclaimed in the Scramble of Africa, Germany managed to build the third largest colonial empire after the British and the French, at the time. From Wikipedia:New Imperialism The period featured an unprecedented pursuit of overseas territorial acquisitions. At the time, states focused on building their empires with new technological advances and developments, making their territory bigger through conquest, and exploiting their resources. During the era of New Imperialism, the Western powers (and Japan) individually conquered almost all of Africa and parts of Asia. By 1914, 90 percent of Africa was under European control; with only Ethiopia (Abyssinia), the Dervish state (a portion of present-day Somalia) and Liberia still being independent. Back to top World War I World War I began 28 July 1914. :28 June 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. :28 July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. :29 July, Russia, in support of Serbia, declared partial mobilisation :30 July, Russia ordered general mobilisation :1 August, Germany mobilised and declared war on Russia :The French ordered their troops to withdraw 10 km (6 mi) from the border to avoid any incidents :The French ordered the mobilisation of her reserves :Germany responded by mobilising its own reserves :2 August, Germany attacked Luxembourg :3 August, Germany declared war on France. :4 August, Germany declared war on Belgium as well :4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany :30 August 1914, New Zealand occupied German Samoa :29 October 1914, The Ottoman Empire carryied out a surprise attack on Russia's Black Sea coast :23 May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary :27 August 1916, the Romanian Army launched an attack against Austria-Hungary :December 1916, Germans attempted to negotiate a peace :February 1917, the Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare From Wikipedia:Russian Revolution In February 1917 (March in the Gregorian calendar) the Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and the old regime was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government which was heavily dominated by the interests of large capitalists and the noble aristocracy. The February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. When the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions were able to exploit virtually universal disdain towards the war effort as justification to advance the revolution further. :6 April 1917, US declares war on Germany. In the October Revolution (November in the Gregorian calendar), the Bolsheviks led an armed insurrection by workers and soldiers in Petrograd that successfully overthrew the Provisional Government, transferring all its authority to the soviets with the capital being relocated to Moscow shortly thereafter. The promise to end Russia’s participation in the First World War was honored promptly. From Wikipedia:German Revolution of 1918–19 In the face of defeat, the German Naval Command insisted on trying to precipitate a climactic battle with the British Royal Navy by means of its naval order of 24 October 1918. The battle never took place. Instead of obeying their orders to begin preparations to fight the British, German sailors led a revolt in the naval ports of Wilhelmshaven on 29 October 1918, followed by the Kiel mutiny in the first days of November. These disturbances spread the spirit of civil unrest across Germany and ultimately led to the proclamation of a republic on 9 November 1918. Shortly thereafter, Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated his throne and fled the country. The function of head of state was succeeded by the President of the Reich. An armistice with Germany was signed in a railroad carriage at Compiègne. At 11 am on 11 November 1918—"the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month"—a ceasefire came into effect. The Treaty of Versailles ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919 in Versailles. Poland regained its independence with the Treaty of Versailles. From Mien Kampf (fair use): {{Quote|There has always been one possible way, and one only, of making weak or wavering men, or even downright poltroons, face their duty steadfastly. This means that the deserter must be given to understand that his desertion will bring upon him just the very thing he is flying from. At the Front a man may die, but the deserter MUST die. Only this draconian threat against every attempt to desert the flag can have a terrifying effect, not merely on the individual but also on the mass. Only by a ruthless enforcement of the death penalty can this be effected. The practical abolition of the death penalty during the war was a mistake for which we had to pay dearly. Back to top References Category:Empires